Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, this is Doris Kearns Goodwin's touching memoir of growing up loving both her family and baseball. The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of No Ordinary Time and Team of Rivals, as well as a contributor to Ken Burns's documentary Baseball, Goodwin re-creates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees fans. We meet the people who most influenced Goodwin's early life: her mother, who taught her the joy of books, and her father, who taught her the joy of baseball, and to root for Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Pee Wee Reese.

"When historian Goodwin was six years old, her father taught her how to keep score for 'their' team, the Brooklyn Dodgers. While this activity forged a lifelong bond between father and daughter, her mother formed an equally strong relationship with her through the shared love of reading. Goodwin recounts some wonderful stories in this coming-of-age tale about both her family and an era when baseball truly was the national pastime that brought whole communities together.... Between games and seasons, Goodwin relates the impact of pivotal historical events, such as the Rosenberg trial. Her end of innocence follows with the destruction of Ebbets Field, her mother's death, and her father's lapse into despair. Goodwin gives listeners reason to consider what each of us has retained of our childhood passions. A poignant but unsentimental journey for all adults and, of course, especially for baseball fans."—Library Journal